Mobile madness or throwback to traditional surveys?

Mobile is important in research – but don’t forget about traditional survey platforms!

We are already glued to our mobiles in many walks of life; we call, text, search, tweet, like, comment, navigate, shop, take photos, record videos, play games, use apps and generally hate to be parted from our electronic companions.

Google recently ensured that companies were taking mobile seriously by boosting the ranking of mobile-friendly pages on internet search results – essentially saying, if you’re not mobile-friendly, you’re in danger of being left behind.

The world of market research is no different, everyone is talking about mobile devices. Here at Research by Design, we have been working with adaptive survey platforms for a while, and recognise how important it is that the surveys we host work effectively on mobiles and tablets. We have a clever tool embedded within our surveys which can detect the size of the screen that users have opened the survey in, and the look and feel of the survey will adapt itself accordingly.

With all this buzz around mobiles, you’d be forgiven for thinking that traditional platforms for completing surveys, like computers and PCs, are a thing of the past. Although this surge towards mobile might be the direction of travel for some audiences, this is not always the case.

In a recent membership survey, over 80% of those who took part completed the survey on a traditional device – their PC or laptop.

Device members completed survey on…

It is likely that this was influenced by both the content of this survey and also the target audience. The focus of the survey was membership of their professional body, and as such, is something members would probably consider participating in during their working day. For members working in the office, at home or on a train, the PC or laptop would certainly offer a larger screen to work with, so potentially an easier platform to access the survey. Additionally, members of this particular membership organisation are typically more office-based compared with some professions, adding to the convenience of this platform.

All things considered, there is no denying the importance of ensuring that everything is mobile friendly – but it is equally important to remember that for some, there is definitely still a preference for completing research surveys on more traditional platforms. Survey designers must not forget this, and we must continue to make sure that the respondent experience is as optimal as possible, no matter what type of device users choose to engage with it.